The left considers this a significant development in the ongoing saga of Trump’s unsavory dealings.

The right dismisses the tape as irrelevant.

The cash vs. check “distinction is important from a public-relations perspective… From a legal perspective, the more pressing question is whether the proposed payment to McDougal... would have represented a campaign expenditure, and whether the Trump campaign was planning to disclose it.”

“For starters, no payment from Trump to AMI was ever made. AMI ended up retaining the rights to McDougal’s story... [Moreover] There’s nothing on the tape to suggest that Trump and Cohen had discussed this with AMI before the company made a deal with McDougal.”

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According to Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz, “There’s no crime... Lawyers and clients have those conversations all the time. I’ve had conversations like that with clients. The end result was, cash was not used. No payments were made.”

Finally, “regardless of what Trump said on this tape, it has no relevance to the special counsel investigation into possible Russian collusion. It’s just a sophomoric attempt to embarrass Trump...This should be of no concern to anyone but Melania Trump. Americans do not care who Trump may or may not have slept with in 2006.”